University of Arizona

[Anonymous]

Nephew is a UA grad and enjoyed his time there. Virginia resident, but got a full ride as an OOS student, so was able to save the money for grad school instead. Wise choice, if you ask me.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Actually Arizona made a big jump in the USNWR rankings this year and passed ASU.

Typically, U of A has always surpassed Arizona State. Arizona is the flagship, while State is the land grant.

Mmm, not really. USNWR Ranking last two year.

U of A: 2018 (124 National; 58 Public. 2019 (106 and 46)
ASU: 2018 (115 and 53); 2019 (115 and 52)

I'm an ASU grad from the 1990's, and so I am biased, but Tempe is a lot nicer than Tucson in my opinion.

Also, since Phoenix is a large city (unlike Tucson), there are more internship opportunities.

I’m guessing you’re among the 95% of ASU grads who have never spent any time in Tucson.
Tempe and the Valley are soulless and generic, you might as well be in a suburb of LA. Plus the air pollution is terrible in Phoenix—the sky is brown all winter.

+1 on this. But she's right that there's more internship opportunities in the PHX area. Raytheon and the U are sort of the main games in town in Tucson. (Which actually makes it pretty great for aerospace stuff, plus there's also Kitt Peak observatory, and the fact that Tucson is one of the few cities that regulates light emissions in order to protect the U's planetary sciences work and the surrounding observatories.)

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:OP, I grew up in Arizona. I knew lots of people who went to ASU and U of A. My best friend's daughter is at U of A. She loves it.

I am somewhat skeptical of the idea of "neighboring states as a better launching pad for CA jobs than staying in VA." People who go to Arizona schools mostly want jobs in Arizona. I don't think AZ schools give you any advantage, relative to any other non-California state, for getting jobs in California.

What I think you should look at is the Cal State system. Some of them are in roughly the same category as U of A in terms of price and selectivity. (Some of them are even cheaper than U of A, as far as I can tell.) San Diego State, Cal State Long Beach, Cal State LA, Cal Poly Pomona - I work for an engineering company that has thousands of employees in southern California, and we definitely hire people from these schools.

I am from Los Angeles. Lol, absolutely not.

+1 sorry, but this is terrible advice. Do not listen to it.

You two are not paying attention to the OP's parameters. Her kid does not have the grades/scores or the money to go to a top-drawer school. She is looking for an equivalent to the University of Arizona. Those schools are it.

Also, I lived in LA and my company is based there, and I can tell you grads from those schools are absolutely getting jobs if they have STEM degrees.

We have company VPs who graduated from CSULB and San Diego State. They'd be sad to hear your low opinion of their alma maters. But they'd have their huge salaries to console them.

OP here. NO, that is not true. Please stop making things up. My son has excellent grades, he has a 3.85 unweighted GPA and a 32 ACT. We can afford approximately $35-$40k/year for college. He is considering Arizona because he would qualify for large amounts of merit aid that makes it fit within our budget, and satisfies his interest in attending school in a different region of the country.

(shrug) You were the one who said you could afford U of A, and that he had the grades and scores for U of A, U of Minnesota, Colorado Boulder, and U of SC. These are not top drawer schools. Therefore the Cal State suggestions were perfectly in line with the information you gave us.

They’re not top drawers schools but they are all well known, national, R1 research state flagship universities whose reach goes beyond their respective areas. Objectively, they are not similar to CSUs, nor on most subjective measures like mission and purpose.

[Anonymous]

One more thing on the OOS versus in-state. Even the kids from Tucson at the U typically don't live at home. Housing is cheap in Tucson and most kids prefer to stay near campus, either in on-campus housing (mostly freshman) or in the many apartments or older homes that are around campus or near to campus.
There's a student vibe in the area around campus, as well, with a lot of small restaurants, sandwich/coffee places, bars, book stores, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One more thing on the OOS versus in-state. Even the kids from Tucson at the U typically don't live at home. Housing is cheap in Tucson and most kids prefer to stay near campus, either in on-campus housing (mostly freshman) or in the many apartments or older homes that are around campus or near to campus.
There's a student vibe in the area around campus, as well, with a lot of small restaurants, sandwich/coffee places, bars, book stores, etc.

OP here. Thanks! This is the kind of information I’m looking for. We are excited to check it out in a few months.

[Anonymous]

I went to the University of Arizona for law school, and I had a great experience at the university and in Tucson generally. Tucson is a wonderful place if you are laid back and like being outdoors.

When I was in law school there, tons of California law firms (of all types - biglaw to smaller firms) participated in on campus interviews. I know this because I ended up at one of the California biglaw firms! A number of my classmates, with no prior connections to California, also ended up in California after graduation. Now, I don't know if the same is true for undergrads. But your son's plan to use Arizona as a stepping stone to California doesn't strike me as unreasonable at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to the University of Arizona for law school, and I had a great experience at the university and in Tucson generally. Tucson is a wonderful place if you are laid back and like being outdoors.

When I was in law school there, tons of California law firms (of all types - biglaw to smaller firms) participated in on campus interviews. I know this because I ended up at one of the California biglaw firms! A number of my classmates, with no prior connections to California, also ended up in California after graduation. Now, I don't know if the same is true for undergrads. But your son's plan to use Arizona as a stepping stone to California doesn't strike me as unreasonable at all.

Thanks for your response! To clarify, it was a different poster whose child planned to use the Arizona schools as a stepping stone to CA. My son doesn't really know where he wants to end up after graduation.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Arizona State's acceptance rate is almost 83% and there are as others have noted already, about 32000 students attending.

OP why not get your kid to contact the admissions dept.

Thanks, but we are well aware of the admissions statistics and what it takes to get in. I am more looking for advice from people who have personal experience with the University of Arizona. (He is not interested in ASU).

A good friend's son got in. He had lousy grades and applied early decision to ensure he got a spot there. Maybe your kid can do the same.

What? My son already would qualify for $30K/year at UA. Why would he need to apply early decision to ensure he get a spot?

Maybe to prove to them he is serious and not just listing them as a safety.

Arizona doesn't have early decision.

But they do say this on their website:

Applying early is important. Our application is available in late July; students who apply in July may receive a decision as early as September. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and take 2 to 4 weeks to process. Students who apply and are admitted early have first access to choice New Student Orientation dates, the on-campus housing application, and our exclusive scholarship matching service, Scholarship Universe.
[i]

[Anonymous]

Oh, unless things have changed, the on-campus housing application is important to get in relatively early, especially if he wants the honors dorm (if they still have that).

[Anonymous]

If your kid does go there, spend some time learning how to pronounce the place names of Spanish origin. So painful to listen to east coasters butcher the names of dorms. Met one girl who thought Phoenix was “fuh-ho-nix”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid does go there, spend some time learning how to pronounce the place names of Spanish origin. So painful to listen to east coasters butcher the names of dorms. Met one girl who thought Phoenix was “fuh-ho-nix”

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Arizona State's acceptance rate is almost 83% and there are as others have noted already, about 32000 students attending.

OP why not get your kid to contact the admissions dept.

Thanks, but we are well aware of the admissions statistics and what it takes to get in. I am more looking for advice from people who have personal experience with the University of Arizona. (He is not interested in ASU).

A good friend's son got in. He had lousy grades and applied early decision to ensure he got a spot there. Maybe your kid can do the same.

What? My son already would qualify for $30K/year at UA. Why would he need to apply early decision to ensure he get a spot?

Maybe to prove to them he is serious and not just listing them as a safety.

Arizona doesn't have early decision.

But they do say this on their website:

Applying early is important. Our application is available in late July; students who apply in July may receive a decision as early as September. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis and take 2 to 4 weeks to process. Students who apply and are admitted early have first access to choice New Student Orientation dates, the on-campus housing application, and our exclusive scholarship matching service, Scholarship Universe.
[i]

OP here- thank you!